


Prevailing Darkness

by Kerzenlicht



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-10 12:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12299652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kerzenlicht/pseuds/Kerzenlicht
Summary: In an overwhelming majority of Fit-It Fics, it is the hero or a side character who end up in a prior time era. Sometimes on purpose and often on accident. Then upon determining their place in this alternate reality, they set out to create change, diverting from their canon storylines.So,What if it was the villain who time travelled?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roseanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseanne/gifts), [Sanjuno](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanjuno/gifts).
  * Inspired by [D Sway the Waves of Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10828125) by [roseanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseanne/pseuds/roseanne). 



Ocrake Island was split by a fairly large channel that allowed even a giant's barge to sail directly through the landmass. A lookout bellowed; his crew cheered. In turn, seagulls shrieked at the approaching vessels. One gunship swung starboard, taking the long route around the island in hopes of bottling the strait. The second marine's ship settled down for the wait, sending only a handful of crew members ashore.

Time passed and the scouts returned. The marines reported to their captain, confirming Blackbeard's presence in the taverns. And although the pirate had some of Impel Down's worst criminals as part of his crew, the mentioned members were currently split. Half patrolled their ship, equally full of drunken and rowdy antics as their tavern-visiting partners. 

Taking the descending red globe in the sky as signal of good fortune, Vice Admiral Momousagi gave the signal to press forward.

 

Upon hearing the explosions coming from the harbor, Marshall D. Teach swept the remains of an exquisite cherry pastry into his mouth. Scampering to the harbor, the man known as Blackbeard left a trail of crumbs for the reckless seagulls to feast upon. The yonko was not pleased to discover his sails going up in flames. A swarm of marines were overtaking the deck! Fuming, Teach stomped his foot, shaking the footing of the ants charging at him. He swung a punch in the air, causing the air to vibrate like blades. Most of the marines collapsed, clutching ruptured eardrums. The rest looked ready to march forward.

 

Gion, better known as Vice Admiral Momousagi, thrust her sword from behind. It was unfortunate that Blackbeard had retained enough awareness to dodge

“A Vice Admiral swinging at my head from behind isn’t fair.” Teach whined as he attached metal claws to his left fist. “Where’s your sense of ‘Justice’?” Seeing his own crew tackling the army of uniforms allowed him to focus on this ambush.

“Who said anything about Justice being fair?” Momousagi settled into a ferocious pattern of attacks. “Justice is the mortar of order.” She dodged a random ambitious marine recruit. He had foolishly sought to imitate Gion; but without her strength, Blackbeard launched the recruit into the air with other large pieces of rubble.

“So you plan on arresting a corpse?”

“Your wanted poster does say dead or deader.”

Blackbeard twitched, grimacing, “That’s odd, I could have sworn it said dead or alive.” Much to his dismay, Konpira (Momousagi’s sword) trimmed his metal nails. At least they remained sharp as ever. “But I get the funny feeling you don’t care about that.”

“Alive is just another word-,” Momousagi swiped the blade toward Teach’s legs, “for public execution.” She deflected the pirate’s retaliatory strike, darting around his large girth.

“True.” Ace’s death at Marineford had certainly proved that point. Heavy breathing dominated the conversation- both captains ignoring the clash of their crews. The corsair grinned as his strength battered the haki-powered strikes aside. 

Once Teach had manoeuvred himself into a certain position, he kicked Momousagi into the distance. While the vice admiral recollected her senses, Blackbeard hit the ground, unleashing the destructive potential of the Guru Guru no Mi. Wooden structures wobbled and crumbled. Inside the formations civilians wailed out in terror, pleading for help from marine forces. 

“Kaishin!” The pirate barked as he thrust a punch into the brick-laid foundation of a popular pub. The bricks burst into powder, shattering from the pressure. The stone tavern wavered, toppling over the neighbouring inn in such a way that, one after another, the harbor shops slumped over leaning at hazardous angles. He pulled out one of his numerous guns, twisting around to face the piers.

Blasting back into battle, Gion slashed at the yonko with Konpira. He fired his gun. She dodged. A second slug. A jarring ‘twang’ of metal deflecting the other. A third round impacted the Vice Admiral’s deltoid muscle, skimming against her clavicle. She hissed in dismay, lunging for the kill. While Teach managed to block the larger blade, Momousagi plunged a dagger into his left kidney. She withdrew as he punched the air, tumbling backwards from the close vibration. 

“Is that it?” Wholly unimpressed, Blackbeard yawned and stretched, “Why didn’t you leave the fight to an actual admiral?” 

Momousagi spit a bloody tooth out, visibly adjusting her jaw. “What? Are you volunteering to surrender? I can’t hear you over the sound of my eardrums bursting.”

“You do look pretty bad.” He sniggered, “What would the rest of the ‘Justice’ league say?”

“That it is true that you died resisting arrest.” She surged forward, pulling her body out of the line of fire. Trapping the weapon between their bodies, she kicked him in a sensitive area.

He choked, “How harsh.” Blinking away the automatic tears, Blackbeard tried to throttle the woman. His reach was cut short by a cramp in his lower abdomen. 

Momousagi twisted out of the way, punching his injured side for good measure. He grunted, determined to ignore the injury temporarily. “Practicality at it’s finest,” She spat out another blob of bloody saliva, disregarding the sweat stinging her eyes.

“You assume that I won’t take this island and everyone on it down with me.”

“If that’s what it takes.” the marine woman vowed.

Teach’s eyes widened, he hadn’t expected a declaration so close to Akainu’s ‘complete justice’ coming from such a slight sliver of a person. “Zehaha, you sure aim high. Then again you’d have too in order to reach my level!”

“Burakku Hōru!” As if poured from a jar, ink-like shadows splashed over the whole waterfront like an incurable blight. One pulse. A second later and the center rippled outward. The ‘waves’ hit the boundary and rebounded backwards. This continued at an impossible speed until a round drain rose out of the ground.

The center of the black ‘hole’ was more of a dense sphere, but from a human’s perspective, that was hard to tell. The moonless matter was so dark, that only the faintest ring of light depicted its location. Its aggressive force swallowed much of the harbour. Piers were torn up, ropes snapped, anchors groaned and waves of seawater swirled into the air. The tightening atmospheric pressure twirled the wind around the mist into a visible, floating current.

The not-quite horizontal twister followed the pull of gravity. Teach soon realized that the highly pressurized fountain could slice through the marine’s invading vessel (and further pulverize the local businesses). It wasn’t a wire cheese slicer, but it did a remarkable impression of one. Local trees, produce carts, fish stands and boulders exploded as they were diced into splinters.

Caught up in the fantastic display, Blackbeard didn’t even flinch as essential parts of his own warship were broken off and eaten by the physical representation of a “D’s” internal vacuum. 

Marines, pirates, and civilians collided mid-air in a whirlwind of bruised limbs. Human tumbleweeds blew across the battlefield. 

“You can’t hope to defeat this.” Blackbeard sneered, visibly increasing the gravity well swirling around him. 

It was a creative use of armament haki that kept Momousagi from losing her footing. Who knew that using haki through high heels during formal socials would pay off? “Hm, oh, I’m not done yet,” The Vice Admiral smirked, “Gyaku jūryoku!”

“A devil fruit!” The villain hissed, grim acknowledgement in his eyes.

The forces of the intangible shadows of darkness recoiled from the twisting power of the Gyaku Gyaku no Mi. The black hole's soul-swallowing gravity began to lighten up. At first the power untangled slowly, losing enough speed that the tug of the Yami Yami no Mi was equal to that of a strong breeze. Powerful, but not strong enough to knock over your average sailor. The floating sea stream collapsed, flooding wrecked cobblestone roads. The visible sweat on Momousagi's brow revealed that she was still pouring her efforts into countering Blackbeard's attack, even as he geared up for his next move. But the battlefield was still in motion- the black hole flexed and bent out of Blackbeard's control. Teach blanched.

Everything that had previously been absorbed by the devouring mass erupted outwards. Having been collapsed and unprotected from darkness's dimension, most of the debris looked like mangled ashes. Marines and pirates alike groaned as they were pelted with the dense flakes of matter. Some inventive journalist would eventually describe it as a whirlwind of paper-thin bullets.

Snarling, Blackbeard struggled to pull away from the epicenter. The Vice Admiral grimly smirked as the ashes carved up her skin. The collapsed supernova lashed out. And then it was over. The singularity was gone. And,

So was its creator.


	2. Wheelhouse: Shelter where the Ship's Steering Wheel is Kept

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Prevailing Darkness:  
> "Snarling, Blackbeard struggled to pull away from the epicentre. The Vice Admiral grimly smirked as the ashes carved up her skin. The collapsed supernova lashed out. And then it was over. The singularity was gone. And,  
> So was its creator."

Wood creaked and hissed. Waves seethed and rebelled. Ropes strained and snapped. Faint echos of barked orders roused men from sleep. With a crack of thunder, a commander was in the doorway calling for the shift change. With the unconscious power of repetitive motions, the crew stumbled to alertness.

There was a surprising lack of rain in the thunderstorm off the port side and a distant hurricane on the starboard side. It was nice- or was until they sailed through an acidic fog. Fortunately it didn't seem to be eating at the wooden ship boards. Un-fortunately, the same could not be said of the people or the sails. Most gritted their teeth and tried not to breathe in. Flashes of blue fire alerted his brothers how often the first commander had to heal his mouth and throat as Marco continued to bellow directions. An hour later and the weather began to stabilize. The crew cheered with flagging enthusiasm at the thought of an island. It would give them time to recover and prepare for the next part of their journey. As part of the Whitebeard pirates rested against the ship's structures; Out came the nurses and doctors to drag patients into the infirmary.

One crew member lingered in dazed confusion as he snapped his fingers. Nothing. This was a dream- or should have been. He could not wake up. Was he trapped in an illusion?

“Oy! Teach, did you get knocked on the head out there?” One of the nurses noticed the symptoms of shock and began tucking a blanket around the unresponsive member of the second division.

This really couldn't be reality. Not one of the Whitebeard pirates would be looking after the well-being of a traitor. Blackbeard searched for evidence of the use of a seastone cuff. There was none. Before he could start searching for knife wounds underneath his clothing, Bay cleared her throat. Without warning, she shoved a light stick near his eye.

He yelped. Blackbeard grabbed the instrument and broke it without thinking, “Watch it woman!”

She ignored his protests and checked his head for fractures in his skull. “Well nothin's broken... aside from my equipment. You'll be payin' for that.”

Blackbeard was careful not to respond violently, responding to appease the lady. He really wanted to know what was going on. As the doctor turned aside, Blackbeard moved to leave. And in the hallway outside the nurse's domain, he brushed by Marco. And Marco responded with his typical, but suspicious easy demeanor! There was no way the first commander wasn’t plotting his ‘disappearance’. But Marco just turned the corner. A bit shaken, Blackbeard turned into the closest doorway. It was just an cleaning supply closet, but it was perfect for the purpose of getting a moment to slow down. A deep breath settled the jitters throwing off his groove. His cheery demeanor was important to maintain, especially if… well, his funny feeling had facts to support a theory. The navigator's cabin had a calendar- he’d head there next.

 

…

 

His soul felt shredded. That made sense with the knowledge that he had somehow ended up back in time. This body had yet to eat the Yami Yami no Mi or the Guru Guru no Mi, but he had the memories of the fruit bonding with his spirit. While it was obvious he couldn’t summon wisps of shadow or split the Moby Dick with a well placed stomp (much to his displeasure), Teach wondered if he would still sink. After all, trauma to the spirit could lock up muscles as powerfully as a devil fruit could.

Rubbing energy into his face, the youthful renegade peeked into the handheld mirror. Several scars and the collection of injuries he had gathered were non-existent, but a widespread phantom ache replaced them. To be more exact, his body _throbbed_ with agonising cramps. It was as if his older self had been crammed into this skin-tight suit. A suit possessing stitches pulled so tight that it was hard to breathe. Conversely, the lack of not one, but _two_ devil fruits ripped the seams of his soul with holes so large that Teach was surprised he hadn’t become a pile of dust.

Was this depression? The soul sickness that seeped the vigor out of vitality? It was an awful apathy. Would this give his true intentions away sooner than backstabbing Thatch?

Thinking of Thatch reminded the deaged crook that the fourth division commander had yet to stow away on their ship and be adopted. With the power of knowledge he now possessed, Blackbeard could prevent Thatch from being adopted. But Thatch wasn’t truly important and he posed little threat even in the original timeline.

And speaking of dimensional changes, there was no way Blackbeard wanted to stay on this ship for another decade. Due to this curse of the Grand Line, he now knows things about Whitebeard’s crew that they themselves don’t know yet. Hells, he even knows the secrets of those who aren’t even brothers yet! He set the mirror onto a partially bent nail.

Teach smirked at his devilish reflection. After he has secured the power of the Yami Yami no mi, exploiting those secrets would be the perfect opportunity to leverage his way into becoming a warlord.

For a brief moment, Blackbeard wonders. He could start with going after Straw-hat Luffy early (and his older brother, commander Ace), but he’d the extra power to respond to any retaliation. ...Or ‘D’ related spon-spoof-surprises. He’d look up the word he wanted later… maybe. If he remembered. Besides Blackbeard wasn’t one hundred percent sure as to which island in the East Blue was the rubber boy’s home. He had a better idea where the Yami Yami no Mi was. [And he had literally spent close to two  _decades_ looking for his treasure].

However… the original second commander had only perished a year or two ago. It was the perfect opportunity to take a ‘training’ trip. It wouldn’t even be a lie- he needed to regain his strength as humanly possible. Just not to protect Whitebeard’s ‘children’.

 

...

Dawn Island, East Blue:

 

Ace and Luffy chortled as they raced up the sand dune. Of course, due to his natural strength and speed, Ace bounded up the slope like a sea gust. Meanwhile the combination of the summer air and simmering sand made Luffy’s limbs almost impossible to control- flopping back down the shoreline more than once. Huffing in exasperation, Ace grabbed the trashcan lid and surfed the steep bluff, speeding up to snatch Luffy away from the sea’s grasp. In the course of launching the young devil fruit user up the hill, Ace fell into the water.

“Ace!” His younger brother screeched as he bounced into flight, “Did you see me?”

Before Luffy got the idea to ‘rescue’ Ace from the incoming waves (and undoubtedly sink faster than the blacksmith’s anvil), Ace spat out a stream of saltwater and awkwardly paddled his limbs to shore. “Yeah, yeah. I see you. No-NO Luffy!”

So much for trying to keep Luffy out of the water. Now they were both soaked in seawater. Scowling, Ace towed his chattering brother back to shore.


End file.
